CBR: EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK: Romita Jr. Draws Dredd

[CBR News]

Courtesy of 2000 AD / Rebellion, CBR presents an exclusive first look at "Judge Dredd: Mega-City Masters 02," featuring the first-ever Judge Dredd cover art by comics legend John Romita, Jr.


Full article here.

[Mart]

That is just wonderful, I hope John has time to draw a Dredd strip sometime.

[J.S.Zorg]

I like alot of JRJR's work but I'm a big Dredd fan and that's just awful. Although I think it's possibly the colouring that's the problem, and the pose...or maybe the bizarre round chest....and I know it seems like a minor detail but I don't like that you can see his right eye. I know it's not exactly showing his face but even seeing his eyes feels wrong to me.

Having said that though I hope Judge Dredd and all the other great 2000AD thrills get a wider audience in the US.

[J.S.Zorg]

I like alot of JRJR's work but I'm a big Dredd fan and that's just awful. Although I think it's possibly the colouring that's the problem, and the pose...or maybe the bizarre round chest....and I know it seems like a minor detail but I don't like that you can see his right eye. I know it's not exactly showing his face but even seeing his eyes feels wrong to me.

Having said that though I hope Judge Dredd and all the other great 2000AD thrills get a wider audience in the US.

[FanboyStranger]

Seems like a natural marriage to me. I see a lot of Mick McMahon's ever evolving style in JRJr's recent work.

[kalorama]

The cover's nothing special (the fact that it's reproduced from pencils doesn't help; Romita's style isn't especially conducive to that), but generally speaking, I think Romita's exaggerated style would be a good fit for Dredd story.

[Leocomix]

The arm is too big. Dredd isn't a pumped up superhero.
Plus they list writers only. Do they think writers sell better than artists?

[RandomFactor]

It's pretty poor. Ok, I get the Romita Jr hasn't grown up with Dredd, and possibly has never even doodled the character before, but you'd think if he was being paid to do a job that he'd bother to maybe look at other artists work for reference. There are just so many details that are wrong, particularly in the uniform (although, even the face doesn't really scream "Dredd" to me).

You could argue artistic interpretation, but I could draw batman with a pink cape and claim that, it'd still be wrong. I doubt he'd have been so careless with one of Marvel or DC's flagship characters.

It's hard for me to shake the feeling that they've published it because Romita Jr is the Kick-Ass artist, and a fairly big name in the US, rather than based on the quality of the work. There are any number of artists who've drawn Dredd many times and would have given a better representation of both the character, and the general quality of the work associated with him. (I'm thinking of guys like Bolland, Staples, Murray, Ezquerra, Dillon etc)

Even compared to Frank Millers notorious unpublished cover, it's poor. As preposterous as Millers is, at least he got the details right.

[king mob]

It's a dreadful (ho! ho!) cover. It's also a pity that they're reprinting the Grant Morrison Dredd stuff as it's bloody awful and completely unrepresentative of how good Dredd has been, and currently is.

[John Zaleski]

romitas the man!